Signage at the SK Hynix Inc. booth at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, China, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. The expo runs through Nov. 10. Photographer: Qilai Shen\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n
South Korea’s SK Hynix on Wednesday reported record full-year profit for 2025, more than doubling its operating earnings as shortages of AI-related memory chips pushed prices higher and helped it beat market expectations.<\/p>\n
The memory maker also posted record revenue and profit in the December quarter, as it competes with rival Samsung for the title of the world’s top memory producer.<\/p>\n
The company also announced additional dividends of 1 trillion won, or 1,500 won per share, lifting its total dividend payout for fiscal 2025 to 2.1 trillion won.<\/p>\n
Here are the company’s quarterly results versus LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:<\/p>\n
Revenue rose about 66% in the December quarter from a year earlier, while operating profit surged 137% over the same period.<\/p>\n
SK Hynix makes memory chips used to store data, which are found in everything from servers to consumer devices such as smartphones and laptops.<\/p>\n
The company has benefited from a boom in artificial intelligence as a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM chips, used to power AI data center servers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
HBM falls into the broader category of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM \u2014 a type of semiconductor memory used to store data and program code that can be found in PCs, workstations and servers.<\/p>\n
SK Hynix said its HBM revenue more than doubled in 2025. This helped it reach a record 97.147 trillion won in revenue for the year, up nearly 50% from 2024. Meanwhile, its annual operating profit reached 47.206 trillion won, more than double the previous year’s.<\/p>\n
“We see SK hynix as one of the biggest AI winners in Asia, driven by its leadership in HBM and strong overall memory competitiveness,” said Ray Wang, an analyst at SemiAnalysis focused on memory and the AI supply chain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Beyond HBM, commodity DRAM will be a critical earnings driver this year, supported by rapidly expanding margins and demand stemming from a structural supply shortage,” he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Demand for HBM has far outpaced supply, triggering shortages across the memory sector, including for less advanced memory chips used in consumer electronics and electric vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a result of this environment, memory prices have been surging, with shortages expected to last into next year as companies like SK Hynix wait for more capacity expansions to come online.\u00a0<\/p>\n